I spend a fair amount of money on medications. I have been tempted to use online / mail order pharmacies, but I am afraid to end up with some shady outfit. Have people used them? Any recommendation? What kind of discounts should one expect?
Early Retirement Extreme Forums » Miscellaneous
Do you use online pharmacies?
(4 posts)-
Posted 10 months ago #
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We used to buy medications from Canadian pharmacies online. Our son needed meds that were VERY expensive. It was about 25-35% less than US prices for a brand name (there was no generic at the time). It saved us a lot of money over the years. I would Google Canadian pharmacies and see what is out there. My guess is that generic drugs are much more similar in price. Our US intermediary online pharmacy was shut down by the government at some point, but this was not related to the quality of the drugs. After that, we dealt directly with the Canadian pharmacy.
We never really had any worries about counterfeit meds from Canada. That may be different when buying from other sources. There are some counterfeit drugs on the market, but that is probably also true when purchased in the US.
I am not sure about the legality of the drug imports, but we never had an issue.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I have used Universal Drug Services, a Canadian outfit, to get ERFA brand desiccated thyroid (a couple of years ago there were shortages of Armour thyroid here in the States, so I went to this - ended up liking it so I still get it). They have been very professional, I haven't had any difficulty.
I also haven't had any trouble with it getting to me through the mail, although I know every once in a while there can be a problem for some people. (Why and when Customs decides to hold up a package, is a mystery to me).
Some drugs can be quite a bit cheaper from the Canadian pharmacies, other drugs not as much. If a drug is still expensive coming from a Canadian pharmacy, but you find it much cheaper somewhere else - I'd be concerned about the possibility of the cheap one being counterfeit.
Also remember there are mail order pharmacies within the U.S. that may save you some money on your meds without going outside the U.S. Many insurance plans try to encourage people to use the (cheaper) mail order pharmacy option by offering lower copays if you use mail order.
Posted 3 months ago # -
One interesting detail I forgot to mention: it was our doctor who recommended the online Canadian pharmacy! He encouraged us to try it and said he had never heard about any patient being unhappy. Mind you, this was on the late 90s, when online purchasing was much less common than it is today. We were very pleased the entire time.
If you do a Google search, you will come across Canadian pharmacies who seem to exist primarily for the US market. We had the impression that what our pharmacy did almost exclusively. Saved us lots of $$ over the years. Definitely look into it and compare prices. Importing may be an issue if your prescription is paid by medical insurance. Our insurance was not paying anyway, so it did not matter.
Posted 3 months ago #
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